Ghost Wood

An expensive, distinctive type of wood used only in the most costly constructions and items.

Properties

Material Characteristics

Ghost wood is extremely hard and durable like stone but much lighter; it has the density of ivory but is generally a cloudy charcoal color which can be polished to a deep black.

Physical & Chemical Properties

Ghostwood is hard enough to take a sharp edge, but not as sharp as steel; Druids and other people who eschew metals can substitute ghostwood swords and shields, keeping in mind the cost is ten to fifty times the cost of a steel equivalent, and the wood dulls much more quickly. It is better used in architecture and decor than weapons. It has more natural flex than steel and in ancient times, when the Ghostwood trees were more common, was used in monumental architecture (such as the exterior of the Pan Celestial Cathedral). It is resistant, though not entirely impervious, to decay in dry or wet conditions.

Geology & Geography

Ghostwood grows in warm, boggy soil in and around shallow swampland. It prefers indirect sunlight or shade under a higher canopy. It has its amazing density because it grows extremely slowly; because of the swampy places it grows in, and because it quickly wears out the blades of saws that cut it, it is a difficult tree to harvest under the best conditions, and after millennia of overharvest the trees have become more rare and the wood is even more outlandishly expensive as a result.

Origin & Source

Ghostwood comes from the Ghostwood tree, a grey-barked, slow-growing member of the cypress family.

Color

Naturally a cloudy charcoal color that polish and gloss stain can render a deep glossy black.